Social Democratic Party of Brazil

The Social Democratic Party of Brazil (PSD) is a centrist political party in Brazil that was founded on 17 July 1945 by Getulio Vargas. The party was founded when Vargas transformed his "Estado Novo" into a multi-party system, and it was a centrist party which represented the more conservative wing of the Getulist movement; the other Getulist party was the Brazilian Labor Party. The party was the most important in the 1945-1964 democratic period, and it relied on powerful networks of rural elites in the less-developed parts of the country. In 1964, the party was banned following the military coup, and the bulk of the party joined the Brazilian Democratic Movement afterwards, while a few elements of the party's right wing joined the ARENA party. A new PSD was founded in 1987 after the end of the dictatorship, but it was too minor to compete in elections. In 2011, dissidents from the Brazilian Democrats, PSDB, and Progressive Party of Brazil under Gilberto Kassab founded the "Social Democratic Party", which was given its name as a tribute to Juscelino Kubitschek, the original PSD's president from 1956 to 1961.